Cancer chemotherapy has been practiced for many years with many different therapeutic agents. A major drawback of this therapy scheme is the toxicity of the chemotherapeutic agents. Agents capable of destroying invading cancer cells are unfortunately often quite toxic to normal cells. Thus, employers of and recipients of chemotherapeutic techniques have a great need for either non-toxic (to normal cells) therapeutic agents or additional agents capable of decreasing the toxicity of chemotherapeutic agents. The present invention is directed toward an agent for decreasing the toxicity of a wide spectrum of chemotherapeutic agents.
Dihydrogen phosphorothioate compounds are known to be effective as antiradiation agents. See U.S. Pat. No. 3,892,824 to Piper et al and Sweeney, A Survey of Compounds from the Antiradiation Drug Development Program of the U.S. Army Medical Research and Development Command, published by the Walter Reed Army Institute of Research, Washington D.C. (1979).
Also, many disease conditions such as cystic fibrosis involve an increase in the viscosity of sputum in a patient suffering therefrom. Thus, methods of decreasing that viscosity are in demand.